Buying a house with multiple EAs- too late to switch?

firsttimeforeverything_2

Hi all,

I will keep this brief:
- House we want to buy is listed with 4 or 5 EAs
- We went with the one that answered the phone (Kings)
- We've made an offer on the property that we think (a good indication of their communication) has been accepted
- Kings have so far been useless- we have had to call them to chase every offer, they have yet to proactively call us on anything

Can we still go with one of the other agents (Wilkinson Byrne being one of them), or is it risky to effectively pull out and then re-offer with another agent?

We need the purchase to go through quickly as we have a holiday coming up, and we only have a few weeks left of our rental contract.

hazyjo

The seller may end up with two sets of fees if you do that. Kings are entitled to theirs in full. Can't see Wilkinson Byrne doing it for free.

You could maybe offer to pay the fees, of the difference...

Not sure what you mean when you say 'call them to chase every offer'.

You probably won't have much communication with the EA now - what is it you're chasing for? Have you instructed a solicitor?

Is it England or Wales? (Different laws in Scotland.)

Have you handed notice in on your rental or been served notice?

Jx

DaftyDuck

Don't contact any of the other agents... they are highly likely to be as bad.

Worth asking yourself why house is listed with four or five agents.

However, once the offer has been accepted, you can pretty much rule the estate agents out of everything. Get them all to stop marketing the property as a condition of acceptance of offer, that's about it. In some ways, since they are so poor, it will work to your advantage as a buyer, since they are less likely to be swift-moving go-ahead agents who will find other buyers to pressure you with.

firsttimeforeverything_2

Thanks both, you're right.

I'm not too worried about the multiple EAs- the seller is a developer and seems to do this for all of his properties (eg the one next door that we also viewed).

firsttimeforeverything_2

And:
- England
- We move out of our flat on 25th August. We did find a property in June and got quite far with the process, but this fell through last week

G_M

The EA is employed, and paid, by the seller.

So YOU cannot switch.

ging84

you say you went with the one that answered the phone, implying the others didn't and now you want to go with the other because you think they might be better at communicating.

tigsly

G_M wrote: »

The EA is employed, and paid, by the seller.

So YOU cannot switch.

As the seller has listed with many agents, the buyer could put an offer in with any of the agents.. so they could switch, but if i were the seller - i would not accept an offer from a different agent, for the same amount of money - as a seller you would have nothing to gain.. and plenty to loose!

firsttimeforeverything_2

Hi everyone,

Because the original RM link to the house I sent to our broker was from the EA we originally saw the property with (WB), those were the details our broker gave to our mortgage provider, leading to:

1) The valuation being booked in through WB (and they accepted it- weird or wily, you decide), and our actual EA (Kings) finding out when they rang up to chase it

2) Despite our broker contacting the provider to change the details, the valuation was finally done today... and the surveyor picked up the keys from WB (incompetent or wily)

Fortunately, our building survey is tomorrow so we're just going to say to Kings that there's been a change of plan and both will be done tomorrow- if they find out they may be pretty annoyed...

So yeah, do not view with one EA and offer through another- you will pay!

Ciderarmy1987

Just to clarify again if IS NOT "your" EA agent! I do think that you need to be very careful in this situation though as I think that from the sounds of it both EA will be looking for a fee from the seller due to your impatience/incompetence and this is a cost that they seller may look to try to pass on to you. Especially if he is a developer working to a tight margin

pinkshoes

firsttimeforeverything wrote: »

So yeah, do not view with one EA and offer through another- you will pay!

Eeeeek. I think I misunderstood your first post. I assumed you viewed and purchased through kings as they were first to answer the phone!

As the other EA introduced you to the property, they will probably want fees too!

Is it an expensive property as this could cost the seller ££££s!